First of all, I'd like to say...
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you
even though the night just ended, I hope everybody had a great holiday

then...
Well, I am a new member to this forum, so I thought I should introduce myself a little bit to get to know the folks here.
I live in South Pasadena, and I am a student at UCR, and I noticed that many members are from the area, and there is a monthly meet in San Bernardino. I have yet to go out to any of the meets because...I am a little bit shy..lol, but I plan on going in the near future.

I have had my FD for about 2 months now; it is a bone stock 1993 VR R1 that I spent about 2 months searching prior to the purchase. I was deciding between a couple of cars, a S2000 and a FD. It was a hard choice, the S2000 is newer and more reliable, it is convertible (works well here in southern cali), and more choices to choose from, but lacking some power and torque. The FD, in the other hand, is older and is known for reliability issues, it is wayyyyy rarer, which means way harder to find, but the performance is superior. Honestly, I have always liked the FD better, but the only draw back is reliability issues. I was not too sure how well I could trust myself with a car that I had to constantly taking care of. It took me about half a year to decide between the two...However, I am glad that I chose the FD over anything else.

This forum has helped me much. I looked into the forum for car specs, maintenence issues, and mechanical problems before I went on purchasing my FD. Reading this forum takes about half the time I am online, and just for your reference...students like me these days spend a whole lot of tmie on the internet. :p And sometimes, I have to come to this forum for car problems. Especially, the reliability issue...I had to replace my water pump in the second week of ownership, my car had a rough idle about 2 weeks ago (fixed instantly after searching here...disconnected the battery to restart the ECU, then boom, it's fixed), now I am experiencing little noise and oil problems. I can't say that I did not expect these problems, but I had always hoped that they would not occur.
Because of the reliability issues, I am now looking for some shops near the area to have a complete inspection and/or repair if needed. After searching through the forums with about 1000 results and only 2 of them actually listed the shops...I noticed that several names are referred more often: RR&R in Santa Ana, Rotary Power in Gardena, MazdaTrix (forgot the location), and Lucky7Racing in El Monte. I know that one member, I think it's guitarjunkie (my appologies if I misspelled it), that represent Lucky7Racing, which is also the place I'm considering to go to. Not only becauseit is the closest in distance , but also there's an active member here that represents the shop. Therefore...I am planning to take my car there in December...guess no driving FD for about 2 weeks...:\

Now to the questions part...
My car only has a catback and a bov. I will have a budget at about $2000, and I am thinking of replacing the pre-cat with a downpipe, and get some gauges, while doing the mechanical inspection/repair. I am not so sure how many problems my FD has right now, it had a coolant leak from the water pump, which is already replaced, but then I am seeing some minor oil leaks these days after I did oil change myself. I am sure the bolt is screwed on tight because I went under the car and found out the leaking's not from the bolt, but some other place. But the strange thing is that it stopped leaking after a week of driving (I checked the dipstick everyday to make sure the oil wasn't emptying). A friend of mine with pretty good knowledge on cars told me leaking from an old car is normal...so I'm not so sure if this is any major issue. I also saw very little, thin white smoke coming out from the right side of the hood one day, but never saw it again. I am hearing some noises from the front right wheel. I hear some clunking noise from the rear (I know this one is more common and less of a worry becuase the FD has had it since day one and the handling has no problem). Also, the car is badly repainted...the oil cooler lines and the radiator were sprayed a little bit, I am hoping to get them off when taking my FD to the shop. So, here's the question...I'd like to know how you guys think about the problems listed above, and I'd also like to know if my budgest is enough (maybe I should just pm guitarjunkie? but I want to have as many inputs from people as possible though).

One side question, how many members here live in the Alhambra/Monterey Park area? And how many here live around Riverside area? I've seen a couple of FC's in these 2 areas... I saw one middle aged man driving a red convertible FC on campus...a professor maybe? lol And the only FD I've seen on the road is a green one with few or no exterior mods (forgot if it has rims), and a smaller aftermarket steering wheel. It was about a month and a half ago when I saw him. I was exiting the 710 freeway at Valley, and then at the light I saw that FD passing by. I got so excited and so did my friend on the passenger side becuase it was the only FD I've seen driving on the road after I got my car. I wanted to catch to the FD and say hi, but the traffic was heavy, and the green FD slowly disappeared among cars....BUT, after making a turn on Fremont, I saw that FD again!! And I could tell it noticed me, too, because it was waiting for me...driving slowly at about 20 mph. I finally caught up and had a nice, friendly waving back and forth, then took off because I had to make a turn again. Man, it felt great. Owning the FD isn't like owning other sportscars. I felt that the owners have more of friendship than rivalry, and I'm saying this because I know that many "ricers" or sports car owners, who drive the same car, i.e. 350Z, think their car is better than other same models and look down or get competative with other owners.

hmm...this post is getting long and it's getting late-_-ll

well, sorry for the long post and babbling, and thanks to people who take the time to read it.

 

welcome

 

Can I get a summary? too much reading there.

 

for $2k, i recommend fixing the leaks, fuel pump upgrade and a haltech.
modded fd + stock computer = boom

 

The west section is a good place to meet local people. It's also a good place for your thread to be hijacked and turned into a complete mess. The pranksters here are plentiful. Most of them think they are much funnier than they really are . .......... You guys know who you are!!!!

If you want some "REAL" help with car issues, read the stickies in the 3rd gen section, and ask your questions there .............. just don't ask on weekends or holidays. That's when the kids are on line, and you will get lots of "uneducated" answers.

Good luck with your new ride

 

Welcome to the community and the West Section. We like to have fun in here so watch out.


I personally used Tri-Point for my FD issues I used to have. They are always regarded as one of the best shops in the country and have been working on rotaries before most of the other shops even existed.

Also, take anything Adam C and Rynberg say with a grain of salt. They are two old geezers that have not come to grips that they will need a wheelchair mount in their FD's in the near future.

 

is this Novel published yet?

 

It's a good thing I didn't have my hearing aid in when you said that!!! Don't listen to Fu either. And especially don't stand near him. He likes to "water" plants on the side of the road

 

I'm sorry, but you're not Funny !

 

hahaha, thanks people for your responses
again, sorry for the long post
I decided to post here instead of 3rd Gen Sectoion because I wanted to kind of bring out the locals here. It seems that people here are in a more mature group...cough cough "old" cough cough. haha, just kidding :p

 

south pasadena? do you have a silver fd? i saw one the other day in south pas, i got a white fc w/ black hood, i live in alhambra btw

 

welcome to the club

 

What he said. Except pick up a Wolf instead of the Haltech. Your car will thank you. And go to Guitarjunkie28 for the work that you need done. He's one of the best rotary mechs in SoCal.

Welcome to the board and good luck with the FD.

 

man **** wolf!

 

He should submit it to National Novel Writing Month.

 

I have seen both systems installed and tuned to their best level and the E11v2 can't hold a candle to what the new Wolf can do. You should come up here sometime Dave and we can go over to Wolf USA. I think you'd be really surprised.

 

the 3dv4+ is the only one i've got experience with. i didn't like having to manually input one number in one box at a time. haltechs tune up 100X faster.

well that, and there's a million times more support.

 

welcome to the orgy...i mean forum

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The new Wolf's are nothing like the old ones. I hated the old ones and swore off almost everything except the Haltech. But the new Wolf is on par with MoTec and Electromotive systems!! And with Wolf USA being in Cali and being accessible 7 days a week I would say there's tons of tech support.

 

it took 3-4 months to get a few questions answered from wolf usa. we ended up tossing the v4+ for the 20b and are going to be using either a meecrotech lt12, or a haltech e11.

 

This was recently? I'll PM you to get more info.

 

nah, mine's red.
I only go back and drive the FD on the weekends though.
626 pride? haha

 

red with anything outstanding about your car? I drive los robles/atlantic down towards the 710 a few times a week and run into a red fd

 

Nice pick up line Roy. Kinda old but I guess its ok. good luck with your search for a new puckner.

 

you should drive around south gate/ Long beach. I see a bunch of FD FROGs you could hook up with